West Ealing author and retired international lecturer Jean Brewster casts a spotlight on the untold lives of Southeast Asian women in her debut novel, Missy Big Bungalow which was published last month (28 April 2025).
The book offers a rare and deeply personal perspective on colonial history – told not by the colonisers, but by the women whose lives were shaped by empire and often left undocumented.
by Jean Brewster
The novel follows the life of Ms Brewster’s grandmother, Chalerm, a poor but resourceful young woman growing up in early 20th-century Siam and Malaya. From the age of 15, Chalerm becomes the long-term companion – though never wife – of first a Dane, then a Scot.
Ms Brewster said: “This book outlines both the joys and heartache of living in these precarious positions with European men, one in which women had no power, simply had to survive. Missy Big Bungalow describes the courage and resourcefulness of one woman, alongside the highs and lows.”
Chalerm’s life is dramatically altered during the Japanese occupation of Malaya in 1942, when, in a desperate bid to protect her family, Chalerm becomes the concubine of a Japanese businessman. Though she survives the war, the experience leaves her bitter and disillusioned.
The narrative follows her into the post-war years, as her half-Scottish daughter marries a British soldier and moves to Nottingham. Letters from Britain offer Chalerm a surprising and sometimes unsettling glimpse into a society she never fully understood. Eventually, changing social norms allow her to legally marry a Scotsman.
Ms Brewster, who has lived and worked in countries including Malaysia, Belize and Namibia, was inspired by a line in Michael Thorp’s Elephants, Tigers and Tappers about the forgotten women of empire.
She said: “I was struck by his words regarding the local, non-white partners many British men had, the ones who were often left behind when the men returned to the UK. It would be an incredibly interesting task to try to document the lives that some of these women had.
“I immediately thought, ‘That’s something I can do. That’s my grandmother’s story.’”
Missy Big Bungalow is published by Troubador. Click here for more information.
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